Rio Cipreses Nature Reserve Mountainbiking

What Brian O'Sullivan is offering

A tall and narrow gorge surrounded by caves, cascades and boulders and overlooking turquoise-green rapids which bubble and foam before crashing and spilling over the gigantic rocks and into the wider river just meters away, Salto de la Leona (Spanish for “The Lioness’ Leap”) is a stunning natural formation near the confluence of the Cipreses and Cachapoal rivers inside the Rio Cipreses Nature Reserve, itself the realm of the colourful and adorable Burrowing Parrot, the majestic Andean Condor, the skulking Andean Fox and the ever-watchful Eagle. Salto de la Leona is also a popular haunt of the Puma (hence the name), and here you may well even see some of her tracks, although its extremely unlikely that you will see one, as although her traces are clear, and her presence is always felt, the Puma rarely allows herself to be seen….
Our mountainbike tour will take us from the campsite near the entrance of the park to the vertigo-inducing and breath-taking Salto de la Leona, where a slim stone bridge is all that stands in the way of a sheer 30 metre drop to the raging torrent below.
On this tour you will learn about the stunning geological formations you will see, the flora and fauna that inhabit the reserve, and even about the various bandits and warlords-turned-highwaymen who took refuge in the park’s ravines and mounted trans-Andean raids into nearby Argentina.